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<center><b><font size="6">Command line arguments</font></b></center>
<p>
When VisIt is run from the command line, you may provide several optional 
arguments that influence how it is run. Here is a complete list of those
arguments along with descriptions of what they do. The various command line 
arguments are divided into several categories. Clicking on the links below will 
display the arguments for the selected category.</p>
<ul>
  <li><a href="#ProgramArguments">Program arguments</a></li>
  <li><a href="#WindowArguments">Window arguments</a></li>
  <li><a href="#ParallelArguments">Parallel arguments</a></li>
  <li><a href="#FileArguments">File arguments</a></li>
  <li><a href="#VersionArguments">Version arguments</a></li>
  <li><a href="#ViewerArguments">Viewer arguments</a></li>
  <li><a href="#DebuggingArguments">Debugging arguments</a></li>
</ul>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<b><font size="4"><a name="ProgramArguments">Program arguments</a></font></b></p>
<p>
VisIt can have multiple user interfaces. At present, VisIt has a Graphical User 
Interface (GUI) and a Command Line Interface (CLI). These arguments allow you to 
choose between those interfaces.
</p>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%" id="AutoNumber1">
  <tr>
    <td width="21%">-gui</td>
    <td width="79%">Run with the Graphical User Interface. This is the default.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="21%">-cli</td>
    <td width="79%">Run with the Command Line Interface. This allows you to run 
    Python scripts that control VisIt.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="21%">-movie</td>
    <td width="79%">Run with the Command Line Interface with a movie making 
    script. When you give this option, you must also provide -sessionfile or -s 
    arguments.</td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><b><font size="4"><a name="WindowArguments">Window arguments</a></font></b></p>
<p>These arguments control the size, location, colors, and style of VisIt's GUI 
and viewer.</p>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%" id="AutoNumber4">
  <tr>
    <td width="21%">-small</td>
    <td width="79%">Forces the viewer to use a smaller window area. </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="21%">-geometry <i>spec</i></td>
    <td width="79%">Specifies the portion of the screen to use. This is a 
    standard X-Windows geometry specification.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="21%">-style <i>style</i></td>
    <td width="79%">Specifies the Window style to use. This is one of the 
    following: windows, cde, motif, sgi.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="21%">-background <i>color</i></td>
    <td width="79%">Specifies the background color for the GUI.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="21%">-foreground <i>color</i></td>
    <td width="79%">Specifies the foreground color for the GUI.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="21%">-nowin</td>
    <td width="79%">Runs VisIt without viewer windows.</td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><b><font size="4"><a name="ParallelArguments">Parallel arguments</a></font></b></p>
<p>VisIt provides several options that control how the compute engine is 
launched and run in a parallel computing environment. None of these options 
apply for the serial version of the compute engine.. These options allow you to 
specify the number of processors and nodes on which the compute engine is run. 
You can also specify options that are useful to running the compute engine in a 
batch environment.</p>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%" id="AutoNumber5">
  <tr>
    <td width="20%">-par</td>
    <td width="80%">Select the parallel version.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="20%">-l <i>method</i></td>
    <td width="80%">The launch method to use. This is platform dependent. Use <i>
    mpirun</i> on SGI systems.&nbsp; Use <i>psub</i> or <i>poe</i> on AIX 
    systems.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="20%">-np <i>processors</i></td>
    <td width="80%">The number of processors to use.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="20%">-nn <i>nodes</i></td>
    <td width="80%">The number of nodes to allocate</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="20%">-p <i>partition</i></td>
    <td width="80%">The partition to run in.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="20%">-n <i>name</i></td>
    <td width="80%">The parallel job name.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="20%">-b <i>bank</i></td>
    <td width="80%">Bank from which to draw resources.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="20%">-t <i>time</i></td>
    <td width="80%">Maximum job run time</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="20%">-forcestatic</td>
    <td width="80%">Forces VisIt's compute engine to use static load balancing.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="20%">-forcedynamic</td>
    <td width="80%">Forces VisIt's compute engine to use dynamic load balancing.</td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><b><font size="4"><a name="FileArguments">File arguments</a></font></b></p>
<p>VisIt provides a couple options that allow you to specify default data files 
or script files to process when VisIt starts.</p>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%" id="AutoNumber6">
  <tr>
    <td width="20%">-s <i>scriptname</i></td>
    <td width="80%">This argument runs the specified VisIt script. Note that 
    this argument only takes effect if the -cli argument is also specified.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="20%">-o <i>filename</i></td>
    <td width="80%">Attempts to have VisIt open the specified data file. Note 
    that the data file need not be located on the local machine. If the file is 
    located remotely, the filename must be of the form:&nbsp; <i>
    hostname:filename</i>.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="20%"><i>-sessionfile filename</i></td>
    <td width="80%">This argument tells VisIt's GUI or movie making script&nbsp; 
    to load the specified session file.</td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p><b><font size="4"><a name="VersionArguments">Version arguments</a></font></b></p>
<p>These arguments allow you to run a different version other than the newest 
installed version of VisIt. Note that these arguments are only useful if 
multiple versions of VisIt are installed.</p>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%" id="AutoNumber2">
  <tr>
    <td width="21%">-beta</td>
    <td width="79%">Run the current beta version if one exists.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="21%">-v</td>
    <td width="79%">Run the specified version.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="21%">-dir</td>
    <td width="79%">Run the version in the given directory.</td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><b><font size="4"><a name="ViewerArguments">Viewer arguments</a></font></b></p>
<p>These arguments apply only to VisIt's viewer and are primarily for internal 
use. Most users will not need to use these arguments.</p>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%" id="AutoNumber3">
  <tr>
    <td width="20%">-noconfig</td>
    <td width="80%">Prevents VisIt from reading configuration files.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="20%">-noint</td>
    <td width="80%">Disables interruption capability.</td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><b><font size="4"><a name="DebuggingArguments">Debugging arguments</a></font></b></p>
<p>When VisIt's debugging argument is specified, VisIt opens a set of log files 
into which it writes progress reports. The log files are useful for determining 
the flow of program control or where any failures occurred. Most users will not 
need to use these arguments.</p>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%" id="AutoNumber7">
  <tr>
    <td width="20%">-debug <i>level</i></td>
    <td width="80%">Runs VisIt in debug mode producing different levels of 
    detailed output. There level must be between 1 and 5.</td>
  </tr>
</table>
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